Comfort Eagle
by Chushingura
Summary: The musings of a Muslim girl before her childhood friend goes to protect them. ArdethxOC. Shameless fluff.


_Just a fluff oneshot. Title is from the CAKE album, Comfort Eagle. I firmly recommend it._

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Pain is a relative thing. Pain could be the stabbing in your head until it feels that your eyes will pop out of your skull and roll across the floor, or it could be the arrow piercing through your leg as you run to get away from your enemy. For me, it's the thought that he might be leaving and never coming back. That's the life of the Medjai though. It would happen sooner or later.

I could do what the sheikh says to do. I could be kind to him, give him what I can, the only thing I have to offer. I could let him have my virtue and then maybe he would come back and marry me and never leave again. Or I could sit at home, dying, and go about my own life as if this wasn't even happening. The other girls were giving the protectors what they could. It may make me a coward, not wanting to open myself up and let him know that I'm not the cold, distant girl I seem to be. I could let him in, let him take me, let him have something to come back to. Even if he did not want me, I would not seem a coward, I would be able to know that I tried to do something. It might dull the pain of him leaving and fighting.

Or it might make it worse if he came back and did not want me.

"Samia", a voice pulls me from my thoughts. "You must watch your sisters. Your father and I have been summoned to the sheikh"

My mother's voice barely concealed the pain. Everyone was worried. Everyone knew someone who was going away to their death.

"Will father go with the Medjai?"

"Yes", she replied.

"But he is old, they have enough young men to protect the creature!", I could hear the protesting in my voice. How could so much of my heart be going away to protect something I didn't even believe in?

"Yes, Samia, I know. Now is not the time for this. Please, daughter, watch your sisters. We will discuss this later."

I got up without another word, there was nothing else to say. The rest of the night passed with preparing dinner for my younger sisters and putting them to bed, my thoughts unable to focus on anything. Not even my father and my best friends impending deaths. I would willingly kill and die to stop whoever it was that caused this disrupt in my small desert community.

Hours had passed since the sun went down when my parents came home, I sat in the receiving room waiting for them. I did a short bow to show respect to my father and left the room, heading towards my own. Having been left with my own thoughts for hours, I had gained the courage I needed. This was the last night before they left, my beloved Ardeth would most likely not have joint in the festivities. He didn't like parties, not even weddings or religious celebrations. I would be able to find him in his own home. I did not bother with my Abaya or Hijab, if anyone else saw me I would surely shame my family. Instead I climbed through my window, praying a quick prayer to thank Allah that I no longer shared a room with my youngest sister, and crept away from my house. The black, shapeless robe I wore and dark hair helped me blend into the black of the night. I followed my internal map throughout the familiar streets until I came to the small house Ardeth Bay lived in alone, having moved out of his parent's house the year before when he became of age. Before I could scare myself, I knocked on the door and stepped back, letting the darkness and my own hair partially hide me. He came to the door and opened it. The candle light spilled out, covering my face and body. I looked up at his dark face and found his eyes.

"Hello", I breathed, still staring into his eyes.

"Hello", he replied, a small smile lit up his face with a different kind of light than the one the candle gave off. " I had hoped you would come."

I exhaled and unthinkingly, my feet stumbled towards him.

"Oh, Ardeth", I said again, I could barely hear my own voice. I wasn't sure if he could.

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry", he stroked my hair and whispered the two words into my ear until I forgot their meaning.

I trembled and hid my face into his body, trying to forget everything except his voice.

Finally, I found words. "You will come back", I said, filling my voice with authority, pretending he was one of my misbehaving sisters. "I will be waiting for you."

With that, I swallowed everything I had been taught about being innocent and submissive and reached my lips up to his. His lips were rough, chapped, but I didn't care. His embrace tightened, and our lips clumsily moved together. I lost myself in the feel of his now moist lips and tongue spinning together and moving in ways I hadn't imagined they could.

"You may be physically away from me, my Samia, but you will never be away from my heart."

I laughed. "And you mine", I replied to the familiar boy I had grown up with, realizing he was now a man.

We moved throughout the small house together normally, as if we had not just furthered our relationship in unfathomable ways. When we reached the bedroom he looked at me, "You do not owe me anything, we do not have to do this just because I am going away."

I waited to speak, trying to form my words correctly. "I want this. I want you. I especially want you to come back and marry me so we may spend our lives together. I'm sure Allah will understand this small misdemeanor as you are protecting us."

He kissed my cheeks, my ears, then my lips. I stroked his protective markings and laughed at him.

"It is just like when we were younger. I was the bold smart one, you were the meek cautious one. And I always managed to have you do what I want."

He laughed, amused.

"Yes, that is so. Another adventure", he agreed.

Then our lips met again and everything else slipped my mind.


End file.
